1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image display device, and more particularly, to a method of compensating colors in an image display device for users with color vision deficiency and a device of the same. Although the present invention is suitable for a wide scope of applications, it is particularly suitable for allowing users with deficient color vision, namely, partial color blindness, to view displayed images as vividly and naturally as normal users.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Recently, technologies of image display devices have shown remarkable improvement, more specifically, in that the displayed colors are represented as vividly and elaborately as natural colors. And, such image display devices are being used extensively in television receivers, personal computers, and mobile phones.
However, users with color vision deficiency (i.e., color blindness or partial color blindness), who do not have the same vision characteristics for colors as normal people, may view the colors displayed from the image display device differently as compared to normal users.
Generally, people having color deficient vision as compared to normal people are referred to as ‘color blind’ or ‘partially color blind’. The broad definition of ‘color blindness’ is a deficiency in the overall color perceptive ability. More specifically, the term ‘color blindness’ is used when a person has completely lost the ability to perceive a specific color. On the other hand, ‘partial color blindness’ refers to a state less severe than ‘color blindness’, wherein a person has, nevertheless, a deficient color perceptive ability as compared to someone with normal vision. A ‘partially color blind individual’ eventually refers to someone with partial color blindness. Therefore, in the description of the present invention, the term ‘partially color blind individual/user’ or ‘individual/user with partial color blindness’ will be used to describe users of the present invention who have partial color deficient vision, and not those who have completely lost the ability to distinguish certain colors.
When an individual is partially color blind, among the plurality of visual cells in the retina of the individual's eye, the rod cells, which contain information on the brightness of light, and the cone cells, which can distinguish colors and the brightness of light, do not have the same responsivity as individuals with normal vision. Partial color blindness is mostly inherited, and it is known to have no medical cure. However, the partially color blind individuals lack perceptivity for certain colors only and are fully capable of distinguishing the rest of the colors. And so, they generally judge that the colors they perceive through their eyes are natural and normal. Therefore, in certain cases, the partially color blind people are completely unaware of their color deficient vision, which leads them to the misconception that the colors seen through their eyes are in fact natural and normal to everybody else.
Therefore, the present invention has been devised to provide a method and device for compensating colors within the image display device, so as to allow the users having color vision deficiency to perceive the displayed colors as vividly and naturally as seen through the eyes of normal users.